Death of the Ego Needed or Not?

The way I see it, based on all that I have learnt over the years....
You don't need an ego death. What is needed is to overcome the issues of the ego: fears, doubt, low self-esteem, and so on.

When you work on that -mostly work on the first 3 chakras as there is where almost all issues are 'stored'- you can get to a higher vibration without all the baggage.
When you get to a real high vibration you begin to feel the desire to serve. This is 5D serving, not the 3D version with the negative connotation. I clearly remember that I couldn't grasp that when I was at the beginning of my spiritual development & journey. I could mentally understand it, sort of, but not feel it. That came as I evolved and grew.

You want to serve from the Heart & Soul. Live your purpose.
Then you still have ego but it's the pure ego.
Basically what it comes down to is moving from the troubled inner child into the Golden Inner Child.

Big misunderstanding that keeps getting spread in spiritual circles is that ego is bad. It is not. And we shouldn't attempt to get rid of it either. That's a false premise.
We need it, first to survive when you haven't worked through your issues yet. Then you need it to be You, to serve, and also to feel connected to All That Is, with your Golden Ego, meaning you feel connected to All while still being you.